A China Railway High-speed (CRH) train, as a very complicated passenger vehicle in high-speed motion state, is equipped with electrical devices with different functions, with lots of wires and cables being deployed therein. Due to the small transportation environment space, dense population and difficulty for evacuation and rescue, great casualties and economic losses will be caused if it is failed to discover fire in time and take corresponding measures when fire happens. Since there are too many places to be monitored in a train and the number, positions and functions of detectors required by trains of various types are diversified, the existing smoke and fire alarm communication systems and methods already cannot satisfy the requirements for the high-speed development of trains. Therefore, it is very necessary to invent an intelligent smoke and fire alarm communication method which is suitable for CRH trains and can satisfy the function requirements and interface requirements of CRH trains of various types.
In terms of mechanical interfaces, the conventional smoke and fire alarm devices are mostly of an integrated structure, and are generally mounted at positions with a narrow space on trains due to their single function and small size. Moreover, there are various mechanical interfaces for trains of various types. Once a device breaks down, the whole device needs to be disassembled and returned to the factory, so that it is very inconvenient for inspection and maintenance of the device.
In terms of electrical interfaces, the conventional smoke and fire alarm devices generally have RS485 communication interfaces or MVB (Multifunction Vehicle Bus) communication interfaces or hard-wired interfaces applicable to trains of this type, so that the features of various networks in the trains cannot be better combined to realize the redundancy of interfaces and improve the safety of the system.
In terms of functions, once the conventional smoke and fire alarm devices are designed, the functions thereof are fixed, and it is very difficult to flexibly add or cancel functional modules according to the requirements of different trains. Moreover, once a software failure occurs in the device, the whole system comes into a “halted” state, and it is very difficult to determine the cause for the failure.
In terms of alarm communication, the CAN (Control Area Network) communication is a common communication mode for train systems; and the devices are generally suspended on a CAN bus, and the devices are identified by configuring device addresses through software or hardware. However, since the number of detectors in a train is changeable as desired and the number of probes varies in trains of various types and in different carriages, the existing smoke and fire alarm devices have many limitations in terms of the number of detectors and the configuration flexibility.
Among the existing smoke and fire alarm methods, Chinese Patent CN10363484A has disclosed a train smoke and fire alarm system and method based on a wireless sensor network. Information about each position is acquired by a number of smoke and fire alarm nodes distributed within a train body, and the information is transmitted to a gateway node in a wireless routing manner. The gateway node collects and classifies the information data uploaded by the smoke and fire alarm nodes, and then uploads the information data to a train network control system in a wired manner. The train network control system processes the information and gives an alarm prompt. In this alarm method, it is only indicated that the wireless routing manner is adopted between the alarm nodes and the network node. A plurality of detectors are suspended on a common communication bus. Since the number of detectors in trains is changeable as desired and the number of probes varies in trains of various types and in different carriages, if communication is to be performed between the plurality of nodes via a single bus, it is required to encode the addresses of the detectors on software or hardware, that is, it is required to set an address for each detector on the bus, so as to identify the corresponding detectors. However, this will limit the case where there are lots of detectors and the detectors are required to be configured flexibly.
For another example, Chinese Patent CN204348016U has disclosed a train smoke and fire alarm device, wherein a smoke and fire controller of the smoke and fire alarm device includes a main controller, a failure detection module, a buzzer, an indicator, a display screen and a communication module; and the main controller is connected to the failure detection module, the buzzer, the indicator, the display screen and the communication module through internal buses, respectively. However, with regard to the alarm device, the communication mode of the internal buses is not disclosed, and the interfaces and specific connection modes between the main controller and the modules are also not specifically disclosed. Thus, the universality of interfaces and the reliability of communication of the alarm device are not exhibited.
For example, Chinese Patent CN104143246A has disclosed a smoke and fire alarm system for a CRH train, wherein a microprocessor of this alarm system has two CAN bus interfaces, and there are several smoke detectors connected in series through CAN buses. The data transmission is two-path transmission, and different CAN boxes are used. One path of data is transmitted to a CAN bus transceiver of a controller, while another path of data is transmitted to another CAN bus transceiver of the controller in an opposite direction. After one CAN bus is disconnected, the other CAN bus can still work, so that the normal transmission of data is ensured. In other words, with regard to this alarm system, since a plurality of detectors are suspended on one CAN bus, it is required to encode the addresses of the detectors on software or hardware. That is, it is required to set an address for each detector on the bus, so as to identify the corresponding detectors. However, this will limit the case where there are lots of detectors and the detectors are required to be configured flexibly.
For another example, Chinese Patent CN201364635Y has disclosed a fire alarm control system for a high-speed train, wherein a CAN bus transceiver module of this control system connects each detector to a controller. Each connection is realized by an independent CAN bus, and each detector and the controller have two addresses. In other words, although the connection between the controller and a detector and between a detector and another detector is realized by an independent CAN bus, it is still required to set an independent address for each detector to identify the corresponding detectors. As a result, the configuration flexibility is influenced.